Farm palaces, marble chimneys and unscrupulous characters: why without ‘dynasty’ the Trump clan would never have existed
Cuando el canal norteamericano ABC estrenó la serie Dinastía en enero de 1981, hace ahora 40 años, el republicano Ronald Reagan acababa de ganar las elecciones presidenciales del país y comenzaba una época de conservadurismo en lo político y opulencia sin complejos en lo estético. Hoy nos encontramos en la situación opuesta, con un presidente demócrata a punto de tomar posesión en Estados Unidos y unos referentes visuales que oscilan entre el minimal y la estética de barrio, con los años noventa como principal fuente de inspiración.
También resulta irónico que, como la actriz Joan Collins ha admitido en alguna ocasión, el personaje que interpretaba en el folletín, Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan (el primero es su apellido de soltera; los demás, los de sus esposos sucesivos), venía a ser una versión femenina del multimillonario Donald Trump, que es ahora el mandatario saliente y al borde del impeachment.This may be judging in reality the hangover of an entire past era.But from that time there is much to save: over nine seasons and 220 episodes, this series that was going to be called oil ("oil") and had been conceived to reflect "the lifestyle of the ultra -ups" (in words of the wordsNolan Miller's costume designer) deployed an own and unrepeatable visual repertoire, which four decades later can serve as an antidote against the possibility of a second advent of the Grunge style.
It is assumed that dynasty action takes place in Denver, Colorado, but the truth is that it could be anywhere.Or none. Donde las otras soap operas americanas de alta gama de los ochenta aún recurrían a ciertos elementos vernáculos, típicos del espacio geográfico en el que se desarrollaban (mucho sombrero texano y mucho vaquero ceñido en Dallas, el shabby chic de los viñedos californianos en Falcon Crest), aquí la única patria es la del dinero, una patria transversal a cualquier región, país o continente del mundo.And the aesthetic apparatus is consistent with it.A single scene chosen at random dynasty gathers so many stimuli to the eye, and generates so much information, that the most sensitive can be overflowed with experience.
The dynasty characters live in a kind of mount Olympus made of marbles, cabinetries and fluff.Here the mortal poor do not have access or place. Como ya se ha destacado en alguna ocasión (así lo hizo Boris Izaguirre en Vanity Fair), la serie presenta ciertas similitudes con la mitología grecolatina.Like the Greek gods, the dynasty characters have a physical configuration very similar to that of any human (only much more graceful than the average), they house the same passions, desires and miseries (but elevated to the nth power),And yet only among them they interact from equal to equal.When someone outside the world of ultra -ups intervenes in the equation, it is usually someone whose function is to be physically and psychologically exploited (there are many examples of this throughout the entire plot).
How a Mount Olympus is decorated
La mansión de los Carrington es la residencia del magnate del petróleo Blake Carrington y su esposa Krystle (John Fosythe y Linda Evans).Inspired by the house of producer Aaron Spelling, it is one of the main characters of the series. Durante las grabaciones, los planos exteriores se tomaron en diversas residencias de California, mientras que para los interiores ae crearon suntuosos decorados de estudio.It is a huge neopalladian style complex, typology that refers to power since the time of the Renaissance (and even before, from the Roman Empire).The space is also the object of fierce disputes: the episode in which Blake almost strangles his ex -wife Alexis is usually remembered because he is presented by the documents that legitimize it as the new owner of the property.At the same time scenario and status symbol, it is a physical place and also a mental space.
La entrada de la casa dispone de una señorial escalera doble con barandilla de forja y pasamanos de madera.All rooms are equipped with marble chimneys (this offers the possibility of illuminating the night sequences with the glow of a crepiting fire, something in itself very dynasty). Las lámparas suelen ser gigantescas arañas de cristal de roca o apliques de bronce con profusión de pantallas troncocónicas y toda mesa, consola o repisa, está coronada por un generoso buqué floral.Boiseries - white grants, or maintaining the natural tone of a hard wood, ebony type or walnut - usually cover the walls, such as oil boxes with molded frames.
More Decoration Carrington 100% Certified: Black Leather or Tobacco Cap -Leather Sofas, Kentias, Monsteras and Ficus A Tutiphen, Chinese vases with the height of a 12 -year -old boy, heavy curtains by frameting French windows and, above all, not a square centimeterwithout mourning soil.If we pay attention, we will see that the creamy tones cakes where the shoe sole is engulfed by textile matter are present in almost all the decorations of the series.
Thus he lives (and fights) a real woman
The first thing Alexis does as he enjoys a totally sanitized economic situation is to acquire an impressive tríplex attic in Denver's most luxurious condominium (although, again, the outer shots correspond to a tower of Los Angeles). En esta residencia de ensueño llama la atención el modo de acceso: el ascensor abre sus puertas en mitad del recibidor, de manera que a la propietaria (y al televidente) se le ahorra la vulgaridad de escaleras, descansillos y demás áreas comunes. Inmensos ventanales, cambios de alturas, sillones Luis XV, sofás tapizados de blanco con almohadones rosas en contraste, expresionismo abstracto en las paredes y un juego de café de plata para el desayuno se alían para crear tan particular universo.
Another essential element is the bathtub: there is always a large foam overflowing tub prepared for Alexis, with the essential accessories of the champagne and the caviar well by hand.Another very convenient thing is the tables with vases and bibelots of porcelain or glass, so that she can crash them against the ground (or against another person's head) during their nothing infrequent arranges of anger.
What leads us to the thorny matter of catfights ("cat fights"), or physical aggression scenes between two women, that the public yearned every season and that became so popular that during their recording the assistance of the press was requested.A lot has been discussed about whether dynasty is feminist or rather the opposite.And possibly both at the same time.It is true that rarely the plot of a television mainstream product had been conducted by powerful women over 50 years.Of course, those women used their power mostly to attack each other.Female alliances and counter -aliances changed direction with an agility that left the thirty -year war in a game of Oca.
Possibly the two most anthological catfights between Alexis and Krystle are the ones that have a lake with newuits and the Alexis painting study (little usually cited her past of amateur hyperrealist painter), where each furniture element is there just to bedestroyed in the most creative and hyperbolic way possible.The dark pleasure that the contemplation of this fight generates in the viewer - of such an extreme violence that brushes the voluntary cartoon - possibly has a lot to do with a Brechtian element: the decoration abandons its mimetic function, stops impersonating a real placeAnd it is revealed as pure scenography while shattering before our eyes.
Other of the usual scenarios is the Mirage (sic), interesting hospitality concept that mixed the exclusive hotel and the field club where the characters liked to find themselves to celebrate lunches and plot conspiracies.Ski shelters are also welcome, of course.For their part, the social headquarters of the oil companies that support the high life train of the characters are rare.Alexis develops particularly well in those meetings rooms: escorted by his son-spat.Including Blake Carrington, of course.
Tips for dressing like a Greek goddess
Baroque femininity and somewhat circus that advocates dynasty requires an ad hoc costume.Here women are Athena at a shareholders meeting, Hera in their family relationships and Aphrodite in the intimacy of their bedroom.Representing all this compendium but transferred at the end of the 20th century was not an easy task for costume designer Nolan Miller, although he certainly reported great satisfaction.
To dress Joan Collins, Miller declared to have inspired the attire of Joan Crawford, a somewhat past version of the style that she herself and other Hollywood divas had behaved in the fifties, inside and off the screen.This would be paradigmatic the model with which Alexis broke into the series, at the end of the first season, when there was still no actress assigned to the role (Sophia Loren was planned, but her salary demands frustrated the plan) and in the firstChapter of the Second: Black and White Sastre suit and Great Pamela with matching veil.The combination of black and white would be Alexis's great ally in his many summit moments, although he also did not shy away the rabid colors, especially fuchsia or red, as well as metallic finishes.For its part, Krystle Carrington used to resort to more refined lines (but at all simpler) and less extreme colors, which was splashed with pronounced necklines and sequin applications and rhinestones and rhinestones.
The antagonism between the two was highlighted by intelligent use of the space axes: while the insatiable Alexis tended to verticality, with her hats and hairstyles that were rising season after season until she looked like pompadour wigs, Krystle - more attached to the earth - conquered theHorizontal sense thanks to its dramatic shoulder pads and its immutable hair curtain with blonde wicks.
Hats, wide flying and bulky sets of slopes and chip (no jewelry, please) were part of the usual clothing menu.Also wild animals, because at that time Peta's boom still waited for her moment.Pamela Sue Martin and Emma Sams (who performed the Fallon Carrington Colby), Pamela Bellwood (Claudia Blaisdel), Catherine Oxenberg (Amanda Carrington), Diahann Carroll (Dominique Deveraux), Stephanie Beacham (Sable Colby) ... most of the female castHe pivoted among these same coordinates, although a younger character, and say popular, like the Sammy Jo that Heather Lark interpreted, sometimes seemed to look in the Californian style of the Farrah Fawcett of the seventies, grafted with any ephemeral pop rock star of themoment.
It should also be noted that dynasty was exactly the type of series in which this phrase was pronounced with some frequency: "I'm going to get something more comfortable".Thus the irruption on a combined stimulant of satin, lace and human skin was announced.Almost all the female cast of the series had this line of dialogue at one time or another.
Male power wardrobe
The masculine style of the series was infinitely more monochorde, which does not prevent it from being also loaded with information.Its objective was to recreate the concept that the American public had of its own patricious.In the same way that - as we have checked with the Carrington mansion - there is an architecture of power, there is also a wardrobe of power.
Thus, the characters of a certain age were usually dressed in suit and tie, or with tuxedo when the occasion demanded long shots.Blake Carrington was the epitome of the mature gentleman of silver, following a certain classic pattern of the pink novel: the custom suit, the impeccable tweed jacket for more informal moments, sporadic concessions to the point of cashmere when the thing was definitely relaxed andSilk batines for hospital or domestic convalescence.
Also other younger characters - Jeff Colby, Steven and Adam Carrington or Dex Dexter, the lover and then Alexis's thirdPoint, everything in that preppy registry so American, so Brooks Brothers (first), so Ralph Lauren (later).The timeless style was complemented with very much options for hair styling: dense and lustrous hair, favored by the dryer and lacquer, they are an unequivocal product of the eighties of the last century of the last century.And almost an essential requirement for those gallants.The hairstyle should be preserved intact at all times.Although they also exhibited well -worked physicists, getting "something more comfortable" never dispensed them from a cardus as static and monumental as a police sculpture.
No one said it was easy to be a Greek God, or to live in Olympus left free.
